Seventeen schools, five daycare centres and hundreds of homes in Amsterdam have been found to have too much lead in the drinking water, the city’s housing alderman Laurens Ivens has told councillors.

Fourteen of the city’s 111 primary schools and three out of 28 secondary schools have too much lead in the water and the pipes will be replaced, Ivens said in an update on the situation.

Five of the 53 daycare centres and 19 other council-owned buildings visited by pregnant women and young children have also been shown to have too high a concentration of lead. Preparations to replace the pipes in most of these locations are already underway, Ivens said.

In the wake of the Amsterdam scare, last month Utrecht said it will check all primary schools and daycare centres built before 1960 and will take action where necessary.

Rotterdam is also making an inventory of all buildings under city management including those used by children in the coming months.

It is estimated that up to 200,000 old houses across the Netherlands have never had old lead pipes changed, and it has not been obligatory for owners to do this despite the health risks.

Now, though, the Dutch health council has urged all pipes be removed. Long term ingestion of lead is thought to risk a drop in IQ of between two and five points for young children.